Make it Easy for Your Customers to Complain

December 18, 2012 2:31 pm

When it comes to customer complaints, there seem to be two sides to this coin, and which side of the coin complaints fall on seems to depend on the source. Since the beginning of the internet, critics have been there and have been heard by enthusiasts enjoying mostly their negative or bad experiences of something they don’t like.

This has gotten a big boost with the birth of social media. Some people make their entire living based on complaining about things. Some have made a performance of it, assuming characters and personas within these forums.

But, on the other side of the spectrum, nobody wants to hear a person with no connection to the company complaining. People who complain in public, and have no notoriety, ironically, for being good at complaining, will be told quickly that their opinions are not needed. The persona needs to be connected to the company in some way or another.

This can often be a good honoring of our unwritten social contract to not complain, and to seek an end to others doing so. However, when it comes to business, it’s a different story.

Since we have established that customer have to and like to complain, let’s see how to make it easy for your customers to complain and learn from the information they give. After all the complaints can help you learn about the business and improve it for them.

There are a number of modern technologies to make this convenient and cut costs at the same time:

Social media

Use the platform of social media to allow customers to have a voice. Allow them to contact you through Facebook and Twitter, and always respond to them as soon as you can. It might be a helpful hint to tell customers your office working hours so they know when to expect a reply. Leave the 24 support for the online chat and call centers.

Social media is very public, so it’s usually a quick way to get a response and it’s become somewhat of a trend because the customer know they can get heard. Often people don’t want to wait on the line until they call is picked up, and together with a public announcement that the service or product was bad can get any company to serve the customer in a timely manner.

Open forums

This is also sometimes called crowdsourcing. The idea that you have an open space for customers to seek help, advice and tips for the product in a timely manner. The great thing about this is that not only is the official company monitoring and answering concerns, but fellow customers are also voicing their past experiences in order to help other customers. This saves money on call centers and creates evangelists for the product.

Lower average hold time (AHT) with self service

No customer wants to wait on the line waiting to be served. So why not lower these hold times and encourage self-service for smaller issues. Customers will feel comfortable dealing with their own issues, if it’s easy and guided. Use tools such as WalkMe to create an interactive FAQ, that guides the user through the task in real time. This lowers costs of them calling, and gets the customer the help they need without fuss.

These three points are clear and may seem even obvious, but if not done correctly, can create a disaster customer service experience. Doing it right though can create world class and innovative customer service that will create advocate of the brand who are not only happy, but will share the love with their social circle.